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Happy Hanukkah! For the next eight (okay, seven at this point) nights, Jews around the world will be celebrating the Festival of Lights, a holiday that commemorates the oil in the Holy Temple lasting for eight (crazy) nights. Basically, the oil shouldn’t have lasted that long, but it did, and now we get gifts and eat fried foods and play dreidel. It’s a poor companion to Christmas, but on the whole, Hanukkah — or Chanukah, or Hanukah; it’s a dealer’s choice situation — is a pretty solid holiday.
In its purest form, Hanukkah is about celebrating miracles, big and small. What better way to honor that theme than to discuss the 21st century’s greatest miracle: Peak TV. The last 18 years (living that chai life) has been full of TV miracles of all kinds, from death-defying moments to feats of inhuman strength. Of course, some of these moments are more significant than others, but they all deserve a place in this list, because Hanukkah is all about taking random things and putting them into one semi-cohesive holiday that no one really understands.
As promised, here are eight TV miracles that have absolutely nothing to do with Hanukkah. Stream one each night, or stream them all at once, it doesn’t matter: for once, this Jewish holiday has no rules.
Meredith surviving the drowning in 'Grey's Anatomy'
Grey’s Anatomy spared no one in Season 3. Halfway through the season, a ferryboat accident sends all the doctors to the docks, where Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) slips and falls into the water. She struggles to stay afloat, but the freezing temperatures soon dull her muscles, and eventually, Meredith allows herself to sink down into the water.
Derek saves her, but for an episode and a half, she’s pretty dead, and we see her hanging out with some of the show’s favorite ghosts: Denny, Kyle Chandler’s bomb tech, Doc (the dog), and, of course, her mom Ellis Grey. Sure, you could call Meredith’s eventual survival a medical miracle (they did like, surgery and stuff), but no matter how you swing it, the moment when her monitors begin beeping again is still straight-up miraculous.
Watch Grey's Anatomy Season 3 Episode 17 "Some Kind of Miracle" on Netflix
Fans correctly spelling 'Game of Thrones' characters' names
Call me crazy, but any show that requires viewers to repeatedly consult a pronunciation guide is doing… a lot. I have never, not once, written Daenerys Targaryen, Maester Pycelle, Rhaegar Targaryen, or any of the freaking Lannisters’ names correctly without first looking them up on Wikipedia (obviously I looked these up, too). That Game of Thrones fans are able to get through all those oddly-placed vowels without a companion book is nothing short of a miracle.
Matt Saracen's epic pass in the 'Friday Night Lights' pilot
When Jason Street is carted off the field during the Panthers’ first game of the season, everyone thinks Dillon’s hopes of reaching State are shot. Until they meet back-up quarterback Matt Saracen (Zach Gilford), that is. Saracen’s first few snaps don’t go as planned, but he picks it up and the Panthers tie it. With just a few seconds left in the game, Saracen throws a bomb, and the Panthers run it in for the win.
Before this play, Saracen had probably taken a couple snaps at practice, but never in a game scenario, and never with his team’s ass on the line. Why practice when you’re behind Jason Street, the number one quarterback in the country, on the depth chart? Yes, Saracen’s got a cannon, but his overall inexperience suggests that there was some serious luck involved in this game-winning pass, as well.
Watch Friday Night Lights Season 1 Episode 1 "Pilot" on Prime Video
KJ Apa's body in 'Riverdale's throwback episode
This year, I’m devoting one night of Hanukkah to each of KJ Apa’s abs. Apa’s beautiful body has been on full display this season on Riverdale, but no shirtless moment was more miraculous than his naked lap down the school hallway in Season 3 Episode 4 “The Midnight Club.” The throwback episode features Apa as Fred Andrews (the father of his regular character Archie), who gets stuck in detention for streaking with FP Jones (Cole Sprouse).
Does the Riverdale team have mind reading powers? It’s like they went into my brain and select exactly what I wanted to see — Apa’s godlike bod, a Breakfast Club-inspired throwback episode, naked “teens,” and Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart hooking up in a library. Miracle or not, I am very impressed.
Watch Riverdale Season 3 Episode 4 "Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Midnight Club" on The CW
'Jane the Virgin': Michael is alive!
In Jane the Virgin Season 3, Michael (Brett Dier) tragically dies from a heart issue just weeks after he’d been shot by criminal mastermind Sin Rostro. Michael’s death sends shockwaves through the show, but at the very end of the Season 4 finale, Michael is revealed to be alive. How did he defy death?! Jane the Virgin will give viewers the lowdown when it returns for Season 5 in 2019, but for now, this moment fits squarely into miracle category.
Watch Jane the Virgin Season 4 Episode 17 "Chapter Eighty-One" on Netflix
'Megyn Kelly Today' surviving as long as it did
Megyn Kelly Today only made it 13 months at NBC, but frankly, it’s astonishing it lasted that long. Megyn Kelly’s Today hour was plagued with difficulties from the beginning, from technical glitches to tone issues to very public (and unnecessary) feuds with celebrities. The sheer amount of dumbfuckery surrounding that show was ridiculous: there are about 30 other things that could have brought down the controversial TV personality over the last year, so it’s pretty surprising that she made it all the way to October 2018. Pour out a glass of Manischewitz for good ol’ Megyn this Hanukkah.
'The Good Place' gang leaving the afterlife for Earth
Considering that two of the items on this list involve defying death, I would be remiss not to include The Good Place, a show in which characters literally leave the afterlife and return to their lives on Earth. In the Season 2 finale, Eleanor (Kristen Bell), Chidi (William Jackson Harper), Tahani (Jameela Jamil), and Jason (Manny Jacinto) are given a second chance at life by The Judge, an all-knowing presence who happens to look a lot like Maya Rudolph. The action continues into Season 3, where the characters meet up (still on Earth) and promise to help other people get into the Good Place.
Sure, this one isn’t exactly a “miracle” — at least not of the “And the oil lasted all eight nights!” variety — but it’s still a crazy moment in which dead people become, well, undead, and that’s good enough for me.
Watch The Good Place Season 2 Episode 12 "Somewhere Else" on Netflix
'Jersey Shore's DJ Pauly D and Vinny finding each other
There is no relationship on TV better than DJ Pauly D and Vinny’s relationship. For the last 10 years, these two have been together through hookups (literally), breakups, kids, and even a “brommitment” ceremony, so it’s impossible to imagine a scenario in which they aren’t endgame. But what if they hadn’t hit it off? What if they never auditioned for Jersey Shore? What if they were just two dudes with other, less-close friends? Thank the Hanukkah gods they chose to spend their lives on MTV, because I don’t want to live in a world without Pauly and Vinny’s bromance.
